It's been a big day for Roberts Space Industries! In addition to the video below, Chris Roberts has penned a lengthy letter that covers current status on his project. His website has also kicked off a new set of features called "Spectrum Dispatches." The first one is a transcript of a rowdy newscast. Finally, there's word that more ship info will be released soon.
We will be releasing details on the various ships on over the coming days, and you should know that Conceptual Artist superstars Ryan Church and Jim Martin are hard at work visualizing them, which we will share when ready (this won’t be in the next few days though – it takes time to do things right!)
The pledge drive has also had an amazing day! The last 24 hours have brought in $200,000, including more than $90,000 and 2000 new backers on Kickstarter. For those unsure of where to contribute, both tallies will eventually sync up and contribute to the same pool, so KS supporters are working towards the $2 million minimum and stretch goals. Eventually, the main RSI interface will allow upgrades, although this feature is already available at Kickstarter. KS will not bill you until the end of the campaign, although Paypal also includes a "BillMeLater" option. KS also deducts a 5% fee for their services, but is very user friendly. Not all countries are supported however, so many Europeans or people who prefer Paypal should use the main RSI site.
Breaking: RSI Pledges Now On Kickstarter!
We didn't have to wait long for the big news that Chris Roberts promised earlier today - you can now back Star Citizen using Kickstarter! To complement the announcement, Mr. Roberts has also produced a video to appeal to anyone still unsure about pledging. It is well worth watching, if only to see Mr. Roberts' choice of reading material.
There's also been a slight tweak to the names of the $5,000 and $10,000 tiers. The first was renamed from Lt. Commander to "Space Marshall," and the higher level went from Commander to "Wing Commander." Awesome!
If you have already made a pledge but would like to show your support on Kickstarter too, you can buy in to a new $5 pledge which comes with a bonus ship upgrade.
For fun, we’ve created a small Kickstarter pledge for existing backers. It’s called the “Kickstarter” and it’s an Electro Skin Hull Enhancement module. This is an upgrade package that players will be able to buy in game that allows ship owners to switch their hull appearance at a flick of a switch. The idea is that we will make skins available and allow players to make their own (within rules) once the game fully goes live. So for the $5 “Kickstarter” pledge we will add it to your current ship package, along with a custom skin that will tell the world that you backed twice! We added it to Kickstarter to allow fans to show their support in both places without breaking the bank.
If you'd like to add a bit extra to your package, just make your way here!
Breaking: RSI Achieves First Million Dollar Milestone!
Roberts Space Industries has just hit $1,000,000 in their pledge drive! The milestone was accomplished just half an hour shy of the 10 am target set by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts. Since this goal was met, people who have already pledged will get an extra 500 credits added to their rewards. In addition to this, the lucky person who contributed the millionth dollar and one random supporter will each receive a signed copy of the original Wing Commander! Now how fast will the next million come? Mr. Roberts also plans more "big news" later today! Stay tuned...
Chris Roberts here!
We hit $1M at 9:35 am PST!!!!! And this was without adding in the lagging backup site orders!
Thanks to everyone that helped push it in the last 10 hours! 50% of the way to the minimum goal in just over 7 days!!!
And there will be some additional big news in a few hours.
2013-06-16 -- The new poll asks how long it's been since you've played a Wing Commander game. With the easy availability of the GOG releases these days, we expect the results to be better than the last time we asked this question back in 2006. Hopefully you've been keeping your pilot skills sharp!
2013-06-15 -- We're now just eight weeks away from the CIC's 15th Birthday! Mark your calendars now for Saturday, August 10, 2013 to attend the party. Festivities will be held in our IRC chatroom #Wingnut.
2013-06-13 -- Mat Bradley-Tschirgi tipped us off about about a huge Wing Commander retrospective posted at Sequelcast. The WC series is the star of Episode 5 of their video game podcast. Both show hosts have plenty of great anecdotes, and they go over an extensive history of the series.
2013-06-12 -- Klavs' giant Arrow model continues to impress! He's supposedly disappointed with the paint job depicted here, but we still think it looks amazing. The 1/72 scale puts this beauty at almost a foot long, and although it's pretty spiffy already, Klavs has quite a bit of fine detail work to go before it's finished.
2013-06-11 -- There hasn't been a whole lot of space sim news coming out of E3 this week, but after a ten-year hiatus, the LAN party favorite OpenParsec is under active development again. The game is sometimes described as "Quake in space," where deathmatch gameplay takes place within a single solar system. This new public release, the first since 2003, is playable on Windows, Mac and Linux.
2013-06-10 -- Deathsnake has posted a couple new images to show that there's still progress being made in the Last Line of Defense mod. These shots show the old and new version of the Epee fighter featured in the game and its sibling project, Enigma 2666. As an extra bonus, you get to see the ship next to a pretty Ferret!
2013-06-10 -- Chris Roberts has posted a new video thanking space sim fans for contributing to his elaborate crowdfunding campaign. Their total crossed the incredible $10,000,000 mark today! All this cash has come from 183,500 fans, which makes the average contribution of $55 significantly higher than the typical $30-35 that many projects see.
2013-06-09 -- As the Blu-ray release of Wing Commander continues to approach, Walmart has posted a slightly larger and less distorted version of the movie's box art. Although their street date is still showing 8/13, the listing for the regular DVD rerelease shows 8/6, which is in sync with all other dates we've been hearing. Walmart's current preorder pricing is $16.
2013-06-09 -- Echo Sector, the ultimate Crusader website, has relaunched with a fresh layout and reinvigorated news page. The team at ES:TUCW has a similar mission to the CIC that involves documenting historical artifacts, compiling a database of game information and reporting on community activities. You can see what they're up at echosector.
2013-06-08 -- While fans are still waiting for Shapeways to deliver their new Broadswords, Ferrets and Sabres, Klavs has already taken the wraps off his next design. The Morningstar heavy fighter has been modeled and is now awaiting textures. Klavs even included the Mace tactical nuclear missile in addition to a host of other ordnance.
2013-06-07 -- Roberts Space Industries has kicked off a new video series called RSI Museum. It chronicles the video game history that was made by the developers of Chris Roberts' new studio, Cloud Imperium Games. The first episode commemorates the 20th anniversary of Strike Commander with a thorough discussion between Mr.
2013-06-06 -- Deathsnake passed along a nifty posting of the German movies associated with Wing Commander 4. As an extra bonus, the nearly-three-hour clip has been 'reencoded' in 1080p. Of course, you can only upscale so much from standard def source footage, but the result actually doesn't look bad at all.
2013-06-05 -- The second action-packed chapter of Wing Commander: A Defiant Few has been released! Part two of this audio adventure continues to follow the Confed response to Nephilim incursions in the Gemini Sector. Find out how Perry Naval Base is faring after all the action to date.
2013-06-04 -- Chronocidal Guy heard about all the amazing things happened here with 3D prints and came by to talk about his excellent Excalibur kit. Most ships we see are completed works, but this project involves creating each of the component pieces and then assembling them into a slick finished model. This method makes larger fighters somewhat more affordable, and the skill involved here never ceases to impress - everyone is on top of their 'measure twice, cut once' game!
2013-06-03 -- Today we've got three gorgeous new models available in the Terran Fleet Supply! Klavs has carefully colored and designed each one to be 3D printed. They all look superb, but the Broadsword is unique due to its super massive size.
2013-06-02 -- Plans to release Wing Commander on Blu-Ray were leaked by WalMart last month. Now we have the official word from publisher Anchor Bay: Wing Commander is coming! Their catalog now includes a listing for the release complete with cover art.
2013-06-01 -- George Sanger, aka "The Fatman," has noticed a problem with the copy of Wing One available on Vibedeck: two of the tracks were corrupted. He has corrected the error on the site and sent the following e-mail (plus links to download the music) to everyone who has purchased the album:Hi,Sorry for contacting you directly, it's me, George Sanger, the Fat Man, I wrote much of the Wing Commander music.You purchased "Wing One: Music from Wing Commander 1" through Vibedeck and PayPal, and I got your email address from the PayPal receipt.
2013-05-31 -- Remember when Chris Roberts interviews were hard to come by? During the Star Citizen announcement and crowdfunding craziness, they were coming out faster than we could report on them. AD has collected a few that were overlooked but are still worth checking out today.
2013-05-30 -- The Austin Symphony has released further details on the upcoming pops concert which will include music from George Oldziey's Wing Commander scores. The event is, unexpectedly, superhero themed:“Superheroes”October 18, 2013 8:00 PMWHERE: Dell Hall CONDUCTOR: Peter BayThe Austin Symphony will open its Pops season with a night of iconic music from your favorite superhero film and television shows. Your spidey senses will be tingling and you will be at the edge of your seat when you hear music from some of your favorites, such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Incredibles, X-Men, and much more!
2013-05-29 -- As Klavs toils away at his next Wing Commander designs, the existing ships at Terran Fleet Supply are finding their way into more and more homes. This latest batch of fan photos come from the flight decks of Whistler, sndwv and Howard Day. They've captured the very popular Rapier, Arrow and Hornet here, plus the first photos of the new Ferret are also below.
2013-05-28 -- Back in the very early 2000s, activity at the CIC slowed somewhat after the cancellation of several official Wing Commander games. The product that breathed new life into the community and proved that there was a future after Origin was Wing Commander Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the game's release!
2013-05-27 -- The CIC staff is mostly laying low today, but we are celebrating a proud achievement as well! Yesterday marked ten years of continuous daily front page updates at wcnews.com.
2013-05-27 -- Today is also Memorial Day in the United States, so the CIC would like to recognize the real life heroism expressed around the world so that we could enjoy our virtual heroes in the comfort of our homes. More so than in most video games, Wing Commander did often stop to pause and remember fallen friends, so such reflection isn't new for our community. A few years back, Kotaku put together an article on this phenomenon in games, and the WC series got credit for doing this subject justice.
2013-05-26 -- Guilherme Mesquita found an oddity at the Chinese retailer Deal Extreme. The site purports to sell a 3D Pattern Artificial Fiber T-shirt that's plastered with Wing Commander's Arrow light fighter. A 3XL specimen goes for $17.
2013-05-25 -- Whiplash has pretty much finished the exterior spaceframe of his custom Hellcat fighter. His most recent additions finalized the engine intakes and mounted the ventral wingtip stabilizers. To get ready for the painting phase, some basic lines have been sketched on the hull.
2013-05-24 -- capi has achieved a huge milestone in the development of his wiki-based Wing Commander RPG! After two years of building rules, curating information and proofreading hundreds of pages of content, his WC RPG is complete. Fans of the project provided input throughout the process, and they were kept informed at every step of the way through detailed status updates.
2013-05-23 -- Klavs is on a WC2 modeling spree! To follow up his Rapier, Ferret, Broadsword and Sabre, the F-54 Epee has now been put together. All of his Vengeance of the Kilrathi designs are quite faithful to their Confed source material, but this one has a nice 'heft' to it that the authentic fighter may have lacked.
2013-05-23 -- Are you a non-Canadian excited about Ultima Forever? Good news: iTunes is very forgiving about allowing foreigners to download free apps from the international versions of the iOS app store. With a little trickery you can grab Ultima Forever and run it on your current account and device!
2013-05-22 -- Electronic Arts today launched Ultima Forever, the latest attempt to revitalize the venerable Ultima franchise. Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar is an iOS game based loosely on Origin Systems' Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. It is a mobile game with a 'free to play' business model; the game itself is a free purchase while various enhancements are available as microtransactions.
It's been a big day for Roberts Space Industries! In addition to the video below, Chris Roberts has penned a lengthy letter that covers current status on his project. His website has also kicked off a new set of features called "Spectrum Dispatches." The first one is a transcript of a rowdy newscast. Finally, there's word that more ship info will be released soon.
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